(An Elizabethan-era prayer engraved on the outer wall of Westminster Abbey)
The online scriptorium of author and pastor Matthew Burden
Reflections on the Christian Life
Saturday, September 29, 2018
Friday, September 28, 2018
How To Be a Celebrity
* Note: I wasn't able to do a new scene of The Quest for the King this week, invested as I am in the revision and re-issue of my Hidden Kings Trilogy, among other things. So in lieu of that, here's a new piece that I wrote for a devotional column in my local newspaper.
Have you ever
wondered what it would feel like to be a celebrity? Most of us, I think, have
dallied with that fancy at some point, imagining what our lives might look like
if we were rock stars, movie stars, or all-star athletes. Everyone has a desire
to be recognized and appreciated.
Most of us also
know, however, that the actual lives of celebrities are probably not as
glamorous as they are portrayed to be. The stresses of living in the unforgiving
public eye and of keeping up with the pressures and daily decision-making of
fame and fortune appear to wear heavily on them. It may in fact be a blessing
to not have to bear the burden of being a celebrity in our particular society.
Did you know,
though, that there’s a way of being a celebrity that carries with it none of
the stress, exhaustion, and disenchantment that so often accompanies the
lifestyles of our public idols? The etymology of the word “celebrity” suggests
that it refers to “someone who is celebrated.” There’s a verse in the Bible
that describes a reality in which we—you and me—are the objects of celebration.
It comes in Luke 15:10, where Jesus says, “There is rejoicing in the presence
of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Essentially, this means that
when we simply say “yes” to the offer of unending grace in Jesus Christ, there
is a celebration that breaks out in heaven because of us. In fact, the Bible
says in many different places that you are indeed a “celebrity” in God’s
eyes—you are accorded the highest imaginable status simply for being who you
are: made in the image of God, the object of God’s thoughts and joy and love.
The great 20th-century pastor and writer A. W. Tozer once noted that
we often give too much thought on how happy we will be when we finally reach
the bliss of heaven; what we should give equal attention to, says Tozer, is
God’s joy in having us there. The God of the universe delights in you; he
thinks about you; and he longs for you to come to him. And when you respond to
the outstretched offer of his love, there is such a party in the courts of the
living God that it would put all the fêtes and bashes of Hollywood to shame. It is
a far greater thing to be celebrated by the Maker of all things than to be
noticed by the passing fancies of this world. So come to Christ, and be the
celebrity you were born to be.
Tuesday, September 25, 2018
Photo of the Week
O God, You are my God;
Early will I seek You;
My soul thirsts for You;
My flesh longs for You
In a dry and thirsty land
Where there is no water.
- Psalm 63:1
Monday, September 24, 2018
Quote of the Week
"Everyone of us needs half an hour of prayer each day, except when we are busy--then we need an hour."
- Francis de Sales, 17th-cent. Roman Catholic clergyman and author of Introduction to the Devout Life
Saturday, September 22, 2018
Saturday Synaxis
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace
According to thy word.
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles
And to be the glory of thy people Israel.
- The Nunc Dimittis (Luke 2:25-32), from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer
Friday, September 21, 2018
The Quest for the King, Scene 13
After three days at sea, the wonder and wildness of it
all had worn a bit thin for the children. Though they had fair weather, and
were able to enjoy the beauty of blue waves reflecting azure skies, they also
learned that life on board a ship consisted of a nauseous sequence of pitching
and rolling, of tight, uncomfortable hammocks, and of dry biscuits that were
only rendered interesting whenever a weevil would scamper out of their cracks.
Despite the rigors of life with the royal navy, however,
the children found ways to amuse themselves. Joe and Sim ran races up and down
the rigging, and Lady found an agreeable ear in the ship’s boy stationed in the
crow’s nest, who would listen to her animated stories with an attention she
never received from her brothers. They rode along up there, while their perch
traced a graceful figure-eight over and over again in the air above the ship as
the mast tilted and swayed with every dip of the deck.
On that third day, though, Lady was watching silently as
the lookout trained his glass out toward the western horizon. Within the next
few hours they expected to sail within sight of the Great King’s realm. The
boys were below, pacing back and forth on the forecastle deck with Kobi and
Mack, waiting for the cry from above. At the rear of the ship, Captain Drave
stood beside the boatswain at the wheel while both regarded the far horizon
with bright eyes.
Minutes dragged on in agonizing silence, until finally a
shout went up.
“Sail ho!”
Kobi stopped, startled, and looked quizzically at the
nearest officer. “Sail? Not land?”
The officer shrugged.
They all crowded the bow-rail and peered into the distance
until they could just make out the white speck of something lingering on the
edge of the horizon. Joe thought at first that it just looked like a bit of
foam at the crest of a wave, but little by little it became clearer that it was
a sail, a square patch of cloth made tiny by distance, and beneath it was a
great wooden ship.
Captain Drave strode up to the forecastle and trained his
eyeglass at it. “I wouldn’t have thought it,” he muttered at last. “But that’s
the ship you were chasing. We caught up to her before landfall.”
“But how?” asked Mack. “We had to wait days to set off
after them.”
“The weather that passed through here recently was rough;
far rougher than what we received. We were riding the tail end of those winds,
but it may be that they were caught in the midst of the squall and had to drop
sail. They may have been blown off course.”
“Let’s catch up to them!” Sim said eagerly.
It was the first time during their whole journey that
they had been within sight of Prince Hal’s location, and the anticipation of
that meeting flooded them with nervous excitement.
“Aye, we may be able to do that,” said the captain. “We’ve
got a fair wind at our backs, and they’ll be soon running into the crosswinds
around the coast. We might be able to reach them before they disembark.”
With a shout over his shoulder, Captain Drave ordered his
men to raise all sail, and they steered to the furthest point of seizing all
available wind in their shrouds. The Wellspring seemed to be bounding from wave
to wave, so swift was the way she cut through the water. Foam rolled back from
her slicing bow in long, graceful curls. As they raced over the surface of the
deep, ever nearer the Great King’s realm, gulls began to throng the skies
overhead, and every now and then a silvery dolphin would spring from the water
and race alongside the ship for a time.
Little by little, they drew closer to the ship ahead,
until they were near enough for Captain Drave to wave a flag-signal for them to
pull up and rendezvous. Sure enough, a few moments later the white shrouds of
the other ship were taken in, and it rode becalmed while the navy frigate
cruised alongside. At the same moment, the lookout gave another cry from far
above.
“Land ho!”
They looked out, past the neighboring ship, and there on
the western edge of the world a green line seemed to be spreading across their
vision, just where the ocean met the sky: the verdant hills of the coast.
The Wellspring pulled up directly alongside the other ship,
and Captain Drave held up a large brass funnel, a speaking-trumpet which he set
to his mouth in order to be heard over the distance that still separated them.
“Ahoy there! This is His Majesty’s frigate Wellspring of the
royal navy!”
“At your service!” came the distant, tinny reply of the
other ship’s captain. “How can we assist?”
“We need to speak to one of your passengers—the man who
embarked with you just before you left Westport!”
There was a brief conversation aboard the other boat, as
the captain and the men around him consulted in a little group. Then he raised
his speaking-trumpet again.
“He’s willing to come to you,” the captain called. “Prepare
to receive a boat!”
Breathless with anticipation, they watched as a man in a
dark traveling-cloak descended a rope ladder from the side of the ship, down
into a dinghy where a sailor was already present to row him over. Just a dozen
strokes of the oars were enough to close the gap between the two ships, both
rolling at ease on the ocean swells. While the boat was in motion, Lady
clambered down from the crow’s nest to stand eagerly alongside her brothers and
the two knights. Captain Drave had his ladder put down, and a few moments later
the traveler appeared over the side-railing of the ship.
His hood was up, obscuring most of his face in shadow.
Joe looked hard at the man, trying to decide if he was
the same one he had seen on that first dark night in Arrens. And even if he
was, what if Joe had been wrong? What if he really was just a traveler on his
way from the capital city to the Great King’s realm? What if the prince really
had died in his sleep, as Steward Presten said, and their whole adventure had
been nothing more than a vain fantasy?
“Prince Halbrinnon?” Sir Mack asked.
The traveler looked at him for a long moment, then slowly
reached up and dropped his hood.
Tuesday, September 18, 2018
Photo of the Week
The season of singing has come,
The cooing of doves is heard in our land...
Arise, come, my love;
My beautiful one, come with me.
- Song of Solomon 2:12-13
Monday, September 17, 2018
Quote of the Week
"Most men are ambitious of the honor of great business, and power, and preferment; they covet it, they court it, they compass sea and land to obtain it; but the ambition of a Christian should be carried out towards quietness."
- Matthew Henry, late 17th-early 18th cent. British pastor and the author of one of the most influential Bible commentaries in history
(Painting: "A Quiet Nook," by Albert Fitch Bellows, 1869)
- Matthew Henry, late 17th-early 18th cent. British pastor and the author of one of the most influential Bible commentaries in history
(Painting: "A Quiet Nook," by Albert Fitch Bellows, 1869)
Saturday, September 15, 2018
Saturday Synaxis
O Lord our God, make our hearts obedient to your divine will; turn our eyes away from vain things, so that, free from the world's attractions, they may always look on your glorious beauty. For you are our God, the God of compassion and salvation, and we glorify you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and forever, to the ages of ages. Amen.
- from Praying with the Orthodox Tradition
Friday, September 14, 2018
The Quest for the King, Scene 12
* Just a very short scene this week; forgive my lassitude!
There were no other ships making sail for the Great King’s
realm that day, nor the next. But Mack had heard of one scheduled to arrive
soon and then to lift anchor the following day, and had arranged passage for
the five travelers. That full day of waiting, however, and the two nights on
either side of it, made a stern trial of their patience. They had been on the Prince’s
trail since their journey began, and at the end they had come within just a few
hours of him. Now the distance between them and their goal was increasing by
leagues upon leagues of ocean.
The morning of the third day found them standing on the
dock, watching the rising sun illuminate the heaving blue sea before them.
Their ship, a long sloop with a broad, sweeping curve to its bow, was anchored
just a few lengths away, and its launch-boat was already on its way to pick
them up. The sailors extended ready hands to help them as they took their
seats, then set their backs to work again at the oars. As they drew near the
ship, a rope ladder swung down to meet them. One by one the children climbed
its swaying rungs, and the two knights followed. They were greeted at the top
by a row of officers in crisp blue and white uniforms, at the end of which
stood a very tall man with a thin, arched nose. He had a large black hat on his
head, which in its shape reminded Joe of a ship turned upside-down.
The tall man made a wide, sweeping motion with his arm as
he bowed. “Welcome, friends. I am Captain Drave of the royal navy, and this is
my ship, the Wellspring. I understand
we bear some distinguished guests today.”
“Yeah!” said Sim. “That’s Sir Mack, the knight.”
“He’s legendary,” said Lady in her sweetly informative
tone.
“And that’s Sir Kobi, captain of the royal guards,” Sim
continued.
“Ah, yes,” said Captain Drave. “I know them both by name
and reputation, and I am glad to have them aboard. But I was referring to the
young heroes I was told about, whose courage and perseverance have kept the
hopes of the royal house alive for this land. I take it that you are those
three heroes.”
The children blushed and squared their shoulders, not
sure how to act under this glowing assessment.
“Well, I’m Joe,” said the oldest. “And this is my brother,
Sim, and my sister, Lady.”
“It is my honor to stand at your service,” said Captain
Drave. “We heard of the prince’s reported death and the steward’s takeover not
long ago, and it grieved us. You have restored our hope.”
After all the introductions had been made, the sailors
made their ship ready. There was a wild circus of frantic but orderly activity,
with men racing down the deck, others climbing up the rigging, and still others
balancing out onto the spars to loose the sails. The children watched this
display of activity and discipline with open mouths. As soon as the bright
white canvas of the sails fell into place, the wind filled them taut, and all
of the sudden the Wellspring was
flying away from the harbor. Salty spray rose from the waves under the bow,
flooding the air with exhilaration and adventure. Ahead of them stretched the
bounding blue field of the sea, moving with such limpid grace that it looked
like a silk blanket stretched out on the breeze.
Joe was standing between Kobi and Mack at the base of the
ship’s forecastle. “How long will it take to reach the Great King’s country?”
he asked.
“A few days,” said Kobi.
“Hmm,” said Joe, drawing a deep breath of the wild,
sea-tinged air. “I could take a few days of this.”
Tuesday, September 11, 2018
Photo of the Week
The healing of His seamless dress is by our beds of pain;
We touch Him in life's throng and press, and we are whole again.
- Verse 5 of the hymn "Immortal Love," by John Greenleaf Whittier
Monday, September 10, 2018
Quote of the Week
"Suffering is not the worst thing that can happen to us. Disobedience to God is the worst thing."
- An anonymous 2oth-cent. Vietnamese Christian who had undergone persecution for his faith
(Painting: "The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian," by Carlo Crivelli, c.1490)
Saturday, September 08, 2018
Saturday Synaxis
(Fresco of the Trinity, Jesuit church in Vienna, c.1705, © Hubertl / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0)
In the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, send me your Spirit, O God; instill the wisdom of your Holy
Spirit into my heart; protect my soul and body, every limb in my body, every
fiber of my being, from all possible harm and all traps the Devil may set for
me and every temptation to sin. Teach me to give you thanks, O Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. Amen.
- Euchologium
Sinaiticum
Friday, September 07, 2018
The Quest for the King, Scene 11
With the burning lands behind them, the way was clear for
their descent onto the narrow coastal plain, and ahead of them they could see
the faroff glimmer of the sea. They looked back and let their gazes scour the
rugged hills on the other side of the blackened canyonlands, but there was no
sign of the Steward’s guards. They had evidently thought their work complete
when they lit the barrens on fire, and had retreated back toward the capital.
“Not very well trained,” Kobi muttered darkly. “They left
without checking that they had finished us off. I’ll have to have a word with
the overseer of their unit when I get back.”
“Well, I for one am glad they’re poorly trained,” Mack
laughed. “Now we can get on with our journey without having to worry about
them.”
“And maybe today we’ll find the prince!” said Sim.
“Aye, maybe,” Mack replied. “At the very least, today we
should be able to find a definite clue of some sort. If he came this way, then
someone will have seen him down in the port, even if they didn’t realize who it
was.”
“No more talking, then; let’s go!” urged Joe.
They set off in high spirits, marching down from the edge
of the canyonlands and into the low coastal forest. It was bright and sunny
here; the trees were a mix of low, fruit-bearing varieties, so the sun could
stream in over and around their heads as they walked. The air was sweet with a
thousand delicious scents, and the children filled their bellies and the
saddlebags with wild pears, apples, chestnuts, and berries. With every few
steps, a flash of red or yellow feathers would reveal the singing birds hiding
among the boughs. After the danger and terror of the wolves, the wildmen, and
the fire, it felt as though they had suddenly stumbled into paradise.
As they drew ever nearer the port, the road widened a
bit. When the first outlying village came up over a rise and into their sight,
Kobi stopped and pointed down to the dust of the road.
“There,” he said. “Do you see it? There’s a clear set of
footprints right there—a traveler was walking this way earlier today.”
“Can you tell how long ago it was?” asked Joe.
Kobi shook his head. “My tracking skills are not quite
that good.”
“Maybe it’s the prince!” said Lady.
“Maybe,” Mack allowed. “But we’re getting closer to
populated areas again; it could have been just someone who came out to the
forest to pick fruit.”
As they followed the road down deeper into the plain,
there soon came more sets of tracks in the dust, until it was a well-rutted
roadway, with other travelers and animals and wagons going alongside them.
Every now and then they would stop and ask people if they had seen anyone
matching the prince’s description, but most of the replies were too vague to be
of any help. So they simply kept plodding on, walking until the walls of
Westport came into view.
By that time it was late in the afternoon, and the
sunlight streaming down on them from out over the sea had begun to take on a softer
tone. It cast the stone walls of the port in a golden hue, so that the city
seemed to be glowing as they approached. Westport was not a big city, at least
not compared to their own home city of Arrens, but it looked like a sprawling
civilization unto itself in comparison with the unpeopled wilderness they had
just traveled through.
At the gatehouse, Mack stopped and asked again if they
had noticed a traveler like the prince.
“Hmm, a younger adult man, you say?” mused the guard. “With
a beard?”
“He was probably wearing a traveling cloak, too,” added
Joe, remembering his encounter with the prince, “maybe with the hood up.”
A spark of recognition suddenly flashed in the man’s
eyes. He snapped his fingers.
“Yes, now that you say it, I did see someone like that. I
know most of the locals around here, so a stranger tends to stand out. Yes, yes…
As I recall, he kept to himself—just walked on through and headed down toward
the harbor.”
Lady squealed with excitement, and Sim hopped up and down.
“When?” Mack pressed. “When was this?”
“Late morning, just before I had my lunch.”
Without another word, the five travelers set off through
the streets, the knights walking briskly and the children running alongside.
Down the narrow avenues they strode, straight down to the harbor. There the
street opened up into a broad view of the quay, where a series of boats and
ships lined the docks. Gulls wheeled and cried out overhead, and the air took
on a wild tang of salt and seaweed. The harbor stretched out for some distance
on either side of them, and they weren’t quite sure which way to go first.
“Let’s split up,” said Mack. “Joe, you come with me. We’ll
go to the left and ask around to see if anyone has seen him. Sir Kobi, you take
Sim and Lady and go to the right. We’ll meet back here.”
They all nodded agreement, so they split up and made the
rounds of the docks, stopping in with every sailor, fisherman, and wharf-master
to ask them the same question. Mack and Joe had no success at all in the
southern end of the harbor, where many of the smaller boats were docked. So
they returned to the meeting-point to see that the others were already waiting
there.
“Any news?” asked Mack.
“A little good news and mostly bad news,” Lady answered glumly.
“Yes,” said Kobi. “We know exactly where the prince is
now. He—or at least someone who looks like the man we’re following—is on board
a ship.”
“Where? One of those ships?” asked Joe, pointing to the
line of masts arranged at the harbor’s north end.
“No,” said Sim. “He’s out there.” And he pointed straight
out to the open sea.
Sir Kobi nodded sadly. “It looks like we’re just a few
hours too late. They said that he booked passage today on a ship making sail
for the Great King’s realm, out over the sea. It’s already well underway.”
The five friends stood in somber silence for a long
moment. Just when their hopes were at their highest, it seemed that fate had
taken an awful turn. They had survived all the dangers of the road only to get
tantalizingly close to the prince. And then, right at the end, they fell short.
“Well,” said Mack, resignation in his voice, “I guess
there’s only one thing we can do, then.”
The children nodded, knowing what would come next. They
would have to go home, back to Arrens. They had given it their best shot, but
it was over now. They hadn’t reached the prince before he left the realm, and
so they couldn’t prove to the people that the Steward had been lying. All that
was left now was the long road home.
But then Joe looked up into Mack’s face, and it was clear
that the old knight had another idea entirely.
“Yes, only one thing left to do,” he said. “We’ve got to
find ourselves a ship.”
Thursday, September 06, 2018
Glimpses of Grace: The Prophecy of Judah's King
(Note to readers: This is the last "Glimpses of Grace" post from the book of Genesis. I'm planning on taking a break before continuing the series into Exodus. In the meantime, I'll be posting a series of memoir-essays in the Thursday slot about my recent pilgrimage to the Holy Land.)
In Genesis 49, we have a series of prophecies made by the dying Jacob over his twelve sons, the patriarchs of the tribes of Israel. Thus far Genesis has been mainly concerned with the character and story of only one of them--Joseph--but in this chapter another son, Judah (who heretofore had not really been a laudable character in the brief events narrated about him), earns a surprising spotlight. Of all the prophecies rendered, Judah's is the most startling (Gen. 49:8-12), not least because it speaks of a future kingship for his tribe.
So what is the content of this prophecy? In verse 8, we see that Judah is prophesied as receiving praise, victory over enemies, and the submission of his brothers. Then in verse 9, a famous image is introduced: "like a lion"--here we have, for the first time, an allusion to the "Lion of Judah." (And, of course, this would come to be one of the titles that the early church ascribed to Christ as the Messianic King.) The end of that verse says, "and who shall rouse him?"--clearly a reference to the obvious dangers of waking a sleeping lion, but early Christians also saw in this phrase a hint of Christ's resurrection.
It's in verse 10 that this passage takes a dramatic turn: the specific promise of an enduring kingship, with one particular Messianic figure in mind: "The scepter will not depart from Judah...until he to whom it belongs shall come." Indeed, the royal house of Israel was reckoned through the tribe of Judah from David's time onward. But the phrase "until he to whom it belongs shall come" is one that presents a tantalizing, multilayered set of prophetic possibilities. Christians and Jews alike have both seen in this phrase a promise of the Messiah: that one day someone would come to whom the whole line of Judah's kingship had always been pointing. Christians, naturally, believe that Christ fulfills that role in its entirety: he is both David's heir and David's Lord, the King of kings. But that particular phrase ("he to whom it belongs") is also a tricky one to translate; most modern translations will note several different possibilities. Another potential rendering is one that says, "until he to whom tribute is due shall come," or, more evocatively yet, "until he who is the gift offering shall come"--if that latter reading is correct, then we have a powerful foreshadowing of the role of the Messianic king as a sacrificial victim. Still other translations will attempt to render the Hebrew more directly, by simply saying "until Shiloh comes." If this reading is correct, it is rather more opaque, but certainly no less poetic and compelling. One possible interpretation would be that it is a reference to the physical location known as Shiloh, which appears most prominently in the Old Testament as the spot where the Tabernacle was placed upon the Israelites' entry to the promised land in the book of Joshua. Thus "Shiloh" would seem to refer to the actual presence of God among his people in the physical space of the land of Israel. If that reading is true, then this turn of phrase seems to indicate that the Messianic king from Judah's line will also be, in some sense, the abiding presence of God in the midst of his people. Whichever way you read that haunting line of "until he comes," it seems to point to Christ, either as the King of kings, as a sacrificial offering, or as "God with us."
And it doesn't end there. Verse 11 speaks of this Messianic king of Judah "tethering his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch"--a prophecy that is apparently literally fulfilled during Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem and his subsequent teaching of the church as the branches of his vine. Verse 11 also says that he will "wash his garments in wine." That might seem a little odd--washing in wine will not really succeed in washing anything; it will simply leave stains. But if Christ is in view here, then we have a fulfillment of this line that makes perfect sense, for it is through the blood of Christ that we are washed clean from our sins. Here, as in the New Testament, wine is taken as an allusion for blood, and so we have a prediction that the Messianic king will offer cleansing through the shedding of blood. To whom could this be pointing but to Jesus?
So what is the content of this prophecy? In verse 8, we see that Judah is prophesied as receiving praise, victory over enemies, and the submission of his brothers. Then in verse 9, a famous image is introduced: "like a lion"--here we have, for the first time, an allusion to the "Lion of Judah." (And, of course, this would come to be one of the titles that the early church ascribed to Christ as the Messianic King.) The end of that verse says, "and who shall rouse him?"--clearly a reference to the obvious dangers of waking a sleeping lion, but early Christians also saw in this phrase a hint of Christ's resurrection.
It's in verse 10 that this passage takes a dramatic turn: the specific promise of an enduring kingship, with one particular Messianic figure in mind: "The scepter will not depart from Judah...until he to whom it belongs shall come." Indeed, the royal house of Israel was reckoned through the tribe of Judah from David's time onward. But the phrase "until he to whom it belongs shall come" is one that presents a tantalizing, multilayered set of prophetic possibilities. Christians and Jews alike have both seen in this phrase a promise of the Messiah: that one day someone would come to whom the whole line of Judah's kingship had always been pointing. Christians, naturally, believe that Christ fulfills that role in its entirety: he is both David's heir and David's Lord, the King of kings. But that particular phrase ("he to whom it belongs") is also a tricky one to translate; most modern translations will note several different possibilities. Another potential rendering is one that says, "until he to whom tribute is due shall come," or, more evocatively yet, "until he who is the gift offering shall come"--if that latter reading is correct, then we have a powerful foreshadowing of the role of the Messianic king as a sacrificial victim. Still other translations will attempt to render the Hebrew more directly, by simply saying "until Shiloh comes." If this reading is correct, it is rather more opaque, but certainly no less poetic and compelling. One possible interpretation would be that it is a reference to the physical location known as Shiloh, which appears most prominently in the Old Testament as the spot where the Tabernacle was placed upon the Israelites' entry to the promised land in the book of Joshua. Thus "Shiloh" would seem to refer to the actual presence of God among his people in the physical space of the land of Israel. If that reading is true, then this turn of phrase seems to indicate that the Messianic king from Judah's line will also be, in some sense, the abiding presence of God in the midst of his people. Whichever way you read that haunting line of "until he comes," it seems to point to Christ, either as the King of kings, as a sacrificial offering, or as "God with us."
And it doesn't end there. Verse 11 speaks of this Messianic king of Judah "tethering his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch"--a prophecy that is apparently literally fulfilled during Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem and his subsequent teaching of the church as the branches of his vine. Verse 11 also says that he will "wash his garments in wine." That might seem a little odd--washing in wine will not really succeed in washing anything; it will simply leave stains. But if Christ is in view here, then we have a fulfillment of this line that makes perfect sense, for it is through the blood of Christ that we are washed clean from our sins. Here, as in the New Testament, wine is taken as an allusion for blood, and so we have a prediction that the Messianic king will offer cleansing through the shedding of blood. To whom could this be pointing but to Jesus?
Tuesday, September 04, 2018
Monday, September 03, 2018
Quote of the Week
(A quote in honor of the resumption of a new school year):
"Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously."
- G. K. Chesterton
"Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously."
- G. K. Chesterton
Saturday, September 01, 2018
Saturday Synaxis
I am no longer my own, but Thine.
Put me to what Thou wilt,
Rank me with whom Thou wilt;
Put me to doing, put me to
suffering,
Let me be employed for Thee or
laid aside for Thee;
Let me exalted for Thee or
brought low for Thee;
Let me be full, let me be empty;
Let me have all things, let me
have nothing;
I freely and heartily yield all
things
To Thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed
God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
Thou art mine, and I am Thine.
So be it. And the covenant
Which I have made on earth,
Let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.
- from Celtic Daily Prayer
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